Sunday, June 23, 2013

Workout of the Day: Ropes, bars, rings and things

Whenever people ask me why I work out, I simply reply, "too many Jean-Claude Van Damme movies as a kid", cue laughter. It's a lot easier than explaining how I was an angry, insecure, chubby kid...

Today's workout is brought to you by the Swings, Rings and Ropes at the Santa Monica Pier (it has it's own Yelp listing!). I had been here years ago and on a whim decided to change up the ol' training program and enlist some body weight techniques. If you're like me you might immediately think that parking in Santa Monica is a nightmare. I'm sure it can be but a $1.00 an hour lot off Ocean Park allayed my concerns. A quick walk up the beach (the loose sand makes for a great calf and quad warm up) and I spotted my destination.

Just south of the Pier are several sets of rings, climbing ropes, parallel and chin up bars. It was interesting to see the different dynamics of Saturday morning fitness enthusiasts around: Crossfit camps, would-be American Ninja Warrior contestants, tourists, kids, random bros messing around and me.

After a very inadequate warm up I jumped on the rope and tested my mettle. I forgot the last time I climbed one of these things I was wearing socks and shoes. So holding the rope between your feet Sidekicks (Chuck Norris, Jonathan Brandis, Mako and Joe Piscapo alert!) style brought near instant pain as the rope scraped off a few layers of skin. After going 2/3 of the way up, I worried the friction would cause me to lose grip and came back down. Tried it one more time, same feeling.

I moseyed around messing with the various equipment and completed a circuit 3 times:

Ring Pull Ups superset with close grip push ups
Front dip (hands in front of you on a bar or ledge, kind of like a vertical push up)
Jump high chins (Jump up to the bar, pulling body up as high as possible)
Dips on parallel bar then inched forward and backward in the upright position.

A quick stretch and walk back to the car equaled the end to my relaxing yet challenging trip to the beach.